15th March Tuesday

Today was going to be hot around 27 degrees we had planned on going to Sovereign Hill today but its not the best place to walk around all day in the heat so we hung around the park...Because everyone has gone home the park is quite and we took advantage of going to the pool and relaxing...

After lunch we decided to go for a walk around town and check out some of the historical buildings ....so many in this area...and the local folks love to show you them and tell you the history...

We viewed quite a few of them, here is just a few....

This was the Mining Exchange erected between 1887 and 1889

It is lined with 40 offices that were once bustling with share brokers and mining agents selling shares in the goldmines.

When gold mining declined, the elaborate building was used as a garage, bus depot and a craft market.

The veranda you see in the photo was reconstructed in 1987 from old photographs.

 Reid's Coffee Palace

Built in 1886 the building remained very intact internally and externally until it was sold
in 1977 and although altered still remains as an important example of the
coffee palace era.

We went in side and met with a gentleman who is now the caretaker of the building and he informed us it is now housed by folks who once lived on the street, they now live there for a small fee..

Its an amazing building..very very old.. inside still stands the original stairway, and hand painted murals on the ceiling and wall panels, ( as the picture shows )

 its glazing on the windows and entrance arch are all from the original building.

Former JJ Goller & Co Warehouse

Was built in 1862 from bluestone carted to Ballarat from the Barrabool Hills and other quarries near Geelong. From 1876 it housed Gollers Wholesale Wine & Spirit Merchants. The building was later tenanted by the Ballarat Orphanage and the Ballarat Community Corrections Centre.

Craig's Royal Hotel

This site was originally built the Baths Hotel, which was Ballarat's first official licensed pub in 1853,it was a simple  timber pub, and became the site of the Royal Commission into the Eureka Stockade uprising.

It was then bought by Walter Craig in 1857 and he built this far grander pub and hotel.

Craig's has been a goldfields icon since Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's second son, slept there in 1867.

American writer Mark Twain also stayed there in 1890's and the famous soprano Dame Nellie Melba sang from its balcony in 1908.

We went in side to view the original bar which was built in the 1800's

and the stair wells built in original bluestone to the cellars.

A true story about the owner of this pub Walter Craig...

Walter Craig bought a race horse named Nimblefoot which he planned to race in the Melbourne Cup, after purchasing him he had a dream that Nimblefoot won the Melbourne Cup, after the race ....in the dream....Walter went to congratulate the jockey who was wearing a black arm band, he asked him "why are you wearing a black armband" The jockey replied, "It's in memory of Nimblefoots owner Walter Craig... he died 3 months ago"

Nimble foot went on to win the Melbourne Cup..and the jockey was wearing a black arm band..Walter Craig had died in August of that year...3 months before his horse won the race...

Spooky hey !!!!

 Her Majesty's Theatre

This beautiful old theatre is the pride and joy of Ballarat.built in 1875.

It was constructed of timber over a mineshaft.

She is Australia's oldest continuously operating theatre, while we were there a afternoon matinee was on and Julie Anthony was singing, after the show we went back and they allowed us inside to take pictures..

It said to be Haunted by a young girl..

So there you have it this is only a few of the many building we saw today, its just amazing to walk around the streets and so much history...!!!